Australian Greens Leader Dr Richard Di Natale and Victorian Greens Senator Janet Rice have written to Victorian councils across the state, offering to preside over citizenship ceremonies for any council that supports changing the date for Australia Day and has their capacity to hold citizenship ceremonies stripped from them by Federal Government.

The Australian Greens say the release of an Amnesty International report into Indigenous incarceration should restart a national conversation about Justice Reinvestment as an alternative to "lock 'em up" prison culture.

Australian Greens spokesperson for legal affairs Senator Penny Wright, who chaired a 2013 inquiry into Justice Reinvestment, said some of the momentum for Federal action had been lost after the election of the Abbott Government.

Australian Greens spokesperson for legal affairs Senator Penny Wright says the Government should not stop at reversing cuts to the legal assistance sector, but look at increasing funding in the upcoming budget.

"Legal assistance services were operating on a shoe-string budget before the Attorney-General's cuts," Senator Wright said.

The Labor and Liberal parties have today voted against a Senate motion to increase funding for community legal services, as centres across the country turn clients away amid funding uncertainty.

Australian Greens spokesperson for legal affairs, Senator Penny Wright, said she was extremely disappointed the Government and Opposition had voted against the Greens motion to increase funding for the sector in the upcoming Federal Budget.

1. notes the effects of Commonwealth funding uncertainty on the legal assistance sector, including the possible closure of community legal centres, staff loss, a reduction in services to clients and declining staff morale;

The Australian Greens have condemned the funding cuts to indigenous legal aid services, which will see the peak body NATSILS close its doors in June.

Spokesperson for legal affairs Senator Penny Wright said the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service advocacy was crucial to addressing shocking levels of indigenous incarceration.

The Abbott Government's huge cuts to education and indigenous programs and will hold back students in remote schools despite Education Minister Christopher Pyne's Direct Instruction plan, say the Australian Greens.